


Tick, Tick, Tick

by Kaunis_Sielu



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-12
Updated: 2017-12-12
Packaged: 2019-02-13 20:42:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 4,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12992142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaunis_Sielu/pseuds/Kaunis_Sielu
Summary: Bombing cases are the worst.





	1. Chapter 1

“I really hate bomber cases.” You say climbing into the SUV behind Hotch.   
“Me too, and it’s bad for Hotch’s ear.” JJ agrees from the passenger seat.   
“That’s why I got him,” you dig in the first aid bag, “this.” It’s a wax ear plug that would normally be used for swimming. You pass it forward to JJ who opens it and hands a chunk to Hotch.   
“I don’t need that.” He says trying to wave it off.   
“Yes you do.” You argue, last time he almost lost his hearing, and he was crabby as hell for three weeks because he was in so much pain. None of you want to deal with that again.  
“Amie.” He grumbles.  
“Aaron.” He flicks an annoyed look back at you in the mirror. “I’ll stick it in your ear myself if I have to.” You threaten and JJ laughs.   
“You two are quite the pair. You’re both so stubborn but she is right Hotch.”  
“I wear my earpiece in that ear.” He protests.   
“That’s why I got you the wax. You pack around it.” You say with forced calm, God forbid he have a weakness. “You know Hotch even Superman has a weakness. Keep your hearing.”   
“The two of you aren’t going to let this go are you?” He asks, his eyes flicking between you and JJ.   
“No.” JJ says and you grin at her as Aaron mutters something that sounds like ‘damn bossy women’. But despite his grumbling he balls up the wax and covers his earpiece with it.   
“Testing one two three.” JJ says into her mic and you get copies from the other car. Hotch nods and you give her a thumbs up.   
“JJ, I want you and Reid to start clearing the area.” Hotch says as the two SUV’s pull up in front of the college. “Morgan, Dave north stairwell, clear the even floors. Amie you’re with me in the south stairwell, well clear the odd floors.” The team moves swiftly and effectively. You’ve done this a million times. You follow Hotch through the first floor, neither of you saying anything. You are checking the doors after he passes them, checking the handle to see if they’re locked. You come to one that isn’t and give Hotch a soft whistle. He turns back and moves in front of the door then gives you a nod. You pull it open and he goes with you close on his heels. Hotch moves right and you move left. The small classroom is clear of people and after a minute you’re sure it’s clear of a bomb too. You pull the door open and again he clears the hallway before you follow him out. You continue to check the doors as you move. “Second floor clear.” Morgan’s voice comes through your earpiece. The two of you complete the square and move to the third floor.   
“First floor clear.” Hotch says. The third floor is empty, as well as the fourth.   
“Where the hell is this guy?” You mutter to Hotch as you hit the top floor.   
“It could have been a false lead.” He responds quietly moving around the second corner. That’s when you see him. He’s at the end of the hallway by the north stairwell. “FBI!” Hotch calls and the kid raises and gun and fires. You grab the back of Hotch’s vest and yank him back behind the corner. You hit your ass but he manages to stay on his feet and returns fire around the corner.   
“Rossi, Morgan he’s coming down the north stairwell.” Hotch says as you scramble to your feet.   
“Copy.” Morgan says and you follow Hotch down the hallway. You hurry into the classroom and find that it’s a science room.   
“Morgan, he’s got the device or part of it with him.” You say. You’d worked under Morgan in the bomb squad for a year before he left for the BAU. This had caused you to become the head of the bomb squad, you hadn’t meant to follow him here but when he recommended you for the open position you’d jumped at the chance. “Oh this is not good.” You continue with your mic open.   
“How not good?” Hotch asks coming over to you.   
“He’s using C4 with another agent, we call it X because the chemical make up changes a little bit with each maker. It’s almost as unstable as C4.”   
“Shit.” Morgan responds.   
“Exactly.” You reply, “depending on how much of this and where he’s going to use it he could take out most of the block.”


	2. Chapter 2

“JJ, Reid get the barrier back further.” Hotch orders over his mic.   
“We didn’t see him Hotch.” Morgan says, “we went all the way to the basement but couldn’t get in.”  
“Copy. We’ll try the basement from our side.” Hotch looks at you and you nod. It’s slow going down to the basement. You do not like not knowing where this guy is and how big he’s built his bomb. When you reach the basement the door opens with a soft click. Hotch clears either side then the two of you move in. You catch the back of his vest and pull him to a stop. Pointing down one of the hallways there’s movement. The biggest problem with this school is that everything is interconnected. If you can get into the basement of one building you can go almost anywhere on campus unchecked.   
Hotch starts quietly down toward the movement you’d seen. It’s gone now but maybe you’ll catch a glimpse of him. When you reach the end of the hall you see you’ve missed him yet again. What is this kid? A ghost or something? Hotch goes to open one of the doors when a soft click stops him in his tracks, the door open an inch.  
“You heard that right?” He asks and you nod.  
“Don’t move. I’m going to try and get a look at it.” You say moving slowly around him. You lay flat on your back your side pressed against his leg and slide until the top of your head barely touches the door. Glancing up you’re surprised to see that it’s a flash grenade.   
“Hotch it’s a flash.”  
“Get back.” He says and you slide away from the door. “Eyes closed?” He asks.   
“Yea, what exactly is the plan here Hotch?”   
“I’m going to push the door open and let the flash grenade go off.”  
“This seems like a poorly thought out plan.”  
“Do you have a better one?”  
“Maybe we can find something to push the door open with so its not your arm. Also since you’re the one with the bad ear don’t you think I should do it?” He sighs and slowly shifts the door shut.   
“Fine. Find a broom or something.” He reaches down for your hand and pulls you to your feet. He moves away from the door to go find something to push the door open with and when you know he’s not looking you line up a kick to the door. Plugging your ears with your fingers you turn your back to the door and yell,  
“Fire in the hole!” Kicking the door you dash a few steps forward and squeeze your eyes shut at the grenade goes off.   
“So much for having a plan.” Hotch complains a moment later.   
“Actually that was my plan. Let’s go!” You say and he shoots you a glare. You lead him out the doors and down a long curved hallway. You reach the next set of doorways and that’s when you see the first bomb. It’s a basic design and you should have no problem diffusing it. Should.


	3. Chapter 3

“What are you doing?” Hotch demands grabbing your arm as you go to open the door.   
“I can diffuse that.” You point at it through the window.   
“How quickly?”  
“Fifteen seconds.” Hotch looks like he doesn’t believe you. “Honestly. That’s a beginner bomb Hotch. Two wires, pull both at once.”   
“What about X?”   
“It depends on the smell. If it’s sweet I can diffuse it with water. If not, well, we do not add water.” He nods and you glance up to make sure there wasn’t another flash grenade. There’s not and you slowly finish opening the door so there’s enough room for you to slip into the next corridor. Hotch follows despite your protests and he heads down the corridor. You’re half way through diffusing the bomb when Hotch comes jogging back.   
“We need to go.”  
“One second. I’m almost done.”  
“No, Amie now.” He grabs your arm and starts to pull you out of the corridor.   
“Hotch!”   
“The hallway is lined.” He hurries you down the hall away from the bomb.   
“Hotch if I can detach the first one we stop the whole bomb.”  
“There’s too much risk.”   
“I can do this Hotch!” You pull your arm from his grasp and sprint back down to the end of the corridor. There are at least ten bombs all interconnected, you start on the first in the long line of bombs and have it detached but not completely diffused when Hotch growls.   
“Okay. You stopped it. We need to go.”  
“Don’t rush me Hotch.” You say softly leaning over mix of chemicals. It’s sweet. “Water?” You reach back he makes a frustrated noise but then passes you a water bottle. Pouring a little water into the mix you watch as it begins to fizz.   
“Alright we’re leaving.” This time he doesn’t take anything to chance and after pulling you to your feet he throws you over one shoulder. You bite back a scream and wrap your arms around his waist. The world sways as he hurries the two of you to the exit. He stops and bites, “shit!”  
“Getting dizzy.” You say and he flips you right side up then you see what was wrong. There’s smoke pouring in from under the door to the stairs. The flames are already licking at the door. You’re trapped in between a dozen bombs and a wall of fire.  
“Okay so back through the hall of bombs?” You ask Hotch as smoke continues to pour into the room.   
“Looks like it.” You both turn on your heels and head back the way you came.   
“Since we’re here I’m disconnecting these.” You say quickly untwisting the wires of two bombs. “Do you still have that water?”  
“Yes.”  
“When I’m done with this I want you to pour a capful into the powder mix.” You move onto the next bomb as he unscrews the cap of the water bottle. The two of you move efficiently. You have one left when the ceiling creaks dangerously, the fire has spread.   
“Times up. We have to go.”  
“No. I’m not leaving this active. The fire can still cause X to go off. If that happens and this goes off we’re screwed.” You finish the last one then gently pick up the X.  
“What are you doing?”   
“We might need to blast our way out of here.” He looks at you like you’re insane, “Trust me Hotch.” You murmur as you move toward the doors. You need to get out of here.   
“We’ve got to move.” Hotch coughs, “leave it.”  
“Water.” He pours some water into the mixture and the two of you haul ass out of the building.   
“Morgan? Dave?” Hotch calls into his mic, “Reid? JJ? Does anyone copy?” Silence. “Keep moving.” He instructs.   
“Um Hotch. We have a problem.” You say screeching to a halt. “There are more.”  
He sees the two bombs attached to the door at the end of this hallway.   
“Shit.”   
“Those are different. I don’t know if I can diffuse those fast enough.” A blast comes from behind you. Did you miss one? You shriek as part of the ceiling comes crashing down blocking off the route you’d taken to get here. “Hotch what do we do?” You ask softly looking up at him. He looks down at you and you’ve got a feeling his answer isn’t going to be good.


	4. Chapter 4

“Can you diffuse that one?” He asks nodding toward it.   
“Maybe if I had my gear but like this? Doubtful.” He starts toward it and you grab his arm, “Hotch!” You pull him back, “You don’t know what you’re looking for. Let me go. Stay here.”  
“I’m not letting you go alone.” He argues.   
“You’re just going to distract me. Please stay here.” You’re practically begging him with your eyes to stay put. Stay out of the line of fire.   
“Fine. But if you get hurt or killed-.” He closes his eyes briefly.   
“I’ll be careful.” You promise laying a gentle hand on his arm. You move slowly away from him, keeping lower to the ground in case you need to hit the deck, not that the blast won’t kill you from the floor but you don’t know where the UnSub went. Hotch is posted at the corner with his gun out, still pointing it at the door, still trying to protect you any way that he can. You inch closer to the bomb. There’s no way to get through the door without moving it, and in moving this one you’d be setting it off. Damn it. If you only had X still you could have set them both off from a safe distance. You step closer and a light clicks on. Oh this is not good. You freeze.   
“Hotch.”  
“What?”  
“It’s got a motion sensor. Whoever built those last ones and this one isn’t the same person.”   
“Come back. We’ll figure something else out.”   
“I don’t know if I can.”   
“What?”  
“Some of these guys make it so if I move away the bomb will go off.”   
“How long will it take for it to go if you move away?”  
“Maybe a second.”  
“What do you want to do?” You can hear the tension laced in his voice.   
“If I move out of range, maybe four steps, can you reach the back of my vest and still be around the corner?”  
“Yes.”  
“Let’s do this then.” You take your first step back and the light blinks but the bomb doesn’t go. You take the next step, keeping your eyes locked on the light. Nothing. By the fourth step you’re feeling more confident. You feel Hotch grab hold of the back of your vest. “Wait.” You say softly. He doesn’t let go but he doesn’t pull you away either. “How many more steps?”  
“Maybe 2. One back and one to the side.” You take the next step back and the light starts to flash. He sees it too and yanks you toward him as the bomb goes off.  
You can feel him pressed against you. That’s a good sign. That means he’s still conscious. Your ears are ringing and you can’t see a thing, there’s dust everywhere. You squeeze your eyes shut to keep out the dust.   
“Hotch.” You cough when the ringing fades.   
“I’m okay. You?”  
“Yea I’m okay.”   
“Open your eyes for me Amie.” He says softly. You do and the first thing you see are his eyes. Warm and concerned. “You can see okay?” He asks and you nod.   
“I wanted to keep the dust out. My ears are ringing but other than that I’m good.”   
“Good.”  
“Oh my god Hotch! How is your ear?” You turn his head and see the wax still packed around his comm unit.   
“Perfectly fine thanks to you.” He says with a small smile turning his head to look at you. You still have his chin in your hand and you see his gaze flick down to your lips. You wrap your arms around his neck and pull yourself tightly to him.   
“Thank you.” You whisper in his good ear as his arms wrap around your waist. You’ve had feelings for him for a while and being wrapped up in his arms is just as comforting as you thought it would be. He pulls away first, only to look down at you with an expression you’ve never seen before. It vanishes as quickly as it appeared.   
“We need to get out of here.” He says as the debris shifts.   
“Do you think anyone is looking for us?”  
“I can’t imagine the team wouldn’t.” God it’s so hot, the blast brought down part of the ceiling but the damage wasn’t as bad as you were expecting.   
“This is weird.” You muse following Hotch over part of the ceiling.   
“What is?”  
“For the size of the bomb this damage is nothing.”   
“Could it be because of this being a basement hallway?” He asks reaching for your hand to help steady you. His longer legs are much more able to get over some of the debris.   
“I mean, yea. The blast could have just shot forward and up because of the structure but this still seems like very little damage.” Hotch leads you around the last corner and you nearly cry with relief, the north stairwell.


	5. Chapter 5

Hotch tries the door and then swears. “It’s locked.”  
“Of course it is.” You groan.   
“Stand back.” He says lining up a shot with the door handle.   
“Is that actually going to work?”  
“Do you have a better idea?”  
“No.” The heat from the fire is getting hotter, the two of you don’t have much time. You and Hotch take a few more steps back and he blocks you from the door. He takes aim again and fires a single shot, it pings as it hits the metal. Looking you see he was dead center in the lock. “Nice shot.” You say, clearly impressed.   
“Thanks.” He says with that tiny half smile he does, “now to see if it worked.” You hold your breath, not daring to hope, just in case. He reaches a hand out and gives the door a gentle tug and it comes free. You pull your gun from your hip and he swings the door all the way open. Clearing the stairwell you start up the stairs, at the first floor landing you glance through the small window and are crushed to see the first floor is entirely in flames. Parts of the floor have given way and the flames are licking the ceiling. “The roof.” You mutter.   
“What?”   
“The roof!” You turn to him looking at him excitedly. “There’s a fire escape on the east side. I saw it when we pulled up.”   
“Let’s go.” He takes point again and the two of you move quickly to the roof. When you reach the last doorway Hotch slowly pushes it open. The fresh air hits your face and you can’t help but grin. You’re going to live. You follow Hotch to the east side where you can see the handles sticking up over the side of the roof. He smiles over at you,  
“Nice work Suess.” That’s when you feel the next blast shake the building beneath your feet. Hotch pins you against the wall so fast you don’t even realize that you’ve moved until your back is against the brick. He glances down at your lips again, “You okay?” He asks and you nod.   
“We have to get off this roof.” You say as five more explosions rock the campus.  
"Come on.” Hotch says starting to move away from you.  
“Wait.” He looks back at you and taking every ounce of courage you possess you kiss him. It’s more a peck on the lips than anything but your heart is still pounding. “I have a bad feeling about the rest of today.” You mutter, a blush creeping up your cheeks. You move past him to the ladder and hurry down it. On level four you start to hear the yells. By the time you reach the last rung Morgan is standing there waiting to catch you on the 8 foot drop to the ground.   
“Hey baby girl.” He murmurs when he catches you. “You two had us worried.”  
“We need to get out of here.”  
“Why?”  
“There are a dozen diffused bombs in the basement and each had a container of X with it.”  
“Shit.” He drops your feet to the ground as Hotch hits the ground next to you. “Everybody move back. Go!”  
“Where did the other explosions happen?” Hotch asks as the three of you jog away from the burning building.   
“Two dorms, the Rec center and another academic building.” Morgan says evenly, as if he jogs everywhere.   
“Do you have the UnSub?” You pant. You definitely don’t jog everywhere.   
“No. Anything you can tell me about these bombs?”  
“The X they had in the basement was defused with water. The biggest blast was a motion sensor, it didn’t blow when I moved away only when I was out of range.”  
“What was range?”  
“Maybe 15 feet?” You look over at Hotch and he nods.   
“That sounds right.” He agrees.   
“The bombs with X were extremely easy to diffuse. So I’d be surprised if there is only one UnSub.” You continue as the three of you head toward the nearest blast.   
“Do you think that they’re nearby? Did they detonate them?”  
“I don’t think so. Otherwise they should have blown them when I was trying to diffuse them.”  
“Good point.” You reach the first site and Reid pulls you into an uncharacteristic hug.   
“So glad you guys are okay.” He says, his voice tight.   
“Same to you Reid.” You says softly, being the two youngest on the team you’ve spent lots of time trying to make Reid less socially awkward and he’s helped you learn Spanish, after he learned of course. You’d say that you were closest to him right after JJ.   
“Where’s JJ?” Hotch asks.   
“Around the backside of the building. I was trying to get a signal on my comm unit when I saw you guys. What kind of bombs are we dealing with here?” You explain to him then turn and start jogging away.   
“Where are you going?” Hotch calls.   
“Find Rossi. He needs to know what we’re dealing with.” Hotch nods then jogs after you.   
“You can stay here. I’ll be fine.”  
“I’m not taking any chances. You’ve been more than lucky today.” That’s when the shots ring out.


	6. Chapter 6

Hotch tackles you to the ground behind a small fountain as more shots ring out.   
“Are you okay?” He asks from on top of you as the arm of the angel on the fountain flies off landing a few feet away.   
“I’m fine. You?” He nods but doesn’t move. “Hotch?” He’s staring down at you with that weird expression on his face again. “Were you hit?” He doesn’t respond instead he presses his lips to yours. Hotch is kissing you. Hotch is kissing you! You wrap your hands around the back of his neck, his hair is soft against your palms. He pulls away looking dazed.   
“Just in case.” He whispers then he pops up enough to return fire around the base of the statue. You slide out from under him and shoot around the other side. You know that you’ve hit one of the UnSubs. The shooting has stopped from one of the windows but the other UnSub is shooting. You see Morgan, Reid, Rossi and JJ enter the building from the far side. You’ve emptied your clip, reloading you and Hotch continue to draw fire, at least until you hear a cluster of three shots. The silence is almost eerie.   
“We’re clear.” Morgan’s voice comes over your comm unit again.   
“Hey you fixed it!” You say, it’s nice having your team back in your ear.   
“Yea, they were scrambling it. Both UnSubs are dead.” Reid says, “no other bombs in the building.”   
“Good. Can we go home now?” You ask your eyes meeting Hotch’s.   
“Let’s go home.” Hotch agrees. He stands and walks over to you, reaching a hand down for yours. He pulls you to your feet and then covers his mic and whispers.   
“Come to my place tonight, we need to talk.” You nod and he moves away. Your heart is pounding, ‘we need to talk’ is never good. At least not in your experience. You did kiss him, but he kissed you too, not to mention all those times he put himself between you and danger. Oh god, this was not going to be pleasant. You’re quiet on the car ride to the airport and halfway through the flight Reid looks worriedly over at you.   
“Amie?”  
“Hmm?”  
“Are you okay? You haven’t said a word since we left the college.”  
“Yea. Yea I’m fine.” You say distractedly.   
“Amie.” Reid pulls your attention from the window and you see the concern in his eyes.   
“I swear Spence. I’m fine. Just trying to process everything.”  
“Process everything?” His brows furrow and you give a soft laugh.   
“I was shot at. Trapped in a basement. Diffused over a dozen bombs. In a burning building. Almost blown up. Climbed down the side of said burning building. Then shot at again. It’s kind of a lot to take in in one day.” You sigh.   
“You’re right. Sorry.” You feel Hotch’s eyes on you as Spencer gives you a little side hug. You smile and give a breathy laugh then he releases you and you lean against the window loosing yourself in thought again. You eventually drift off for a little while, waking when the plane bumps the ground. The team all piles off the plane with murmurs of good night and see you tomorrow’s. You meet Hotch’s eye, only for a second but you know he’s still expecting you to come over.   
When you arrive in front of his apartment twenty minutes later you’re anxious. Pushing the buzzer you’re both relieved and terrified that he buzzes you in so quickly. He meets you at the elevator then leads you into his home.   
“Can I get you anything? Coffee? Tea? Water?” He turns toward the kitchen.   
“No thanks. Can we just get this over with? I’m fired right. For crossing a line or something.” He looks at you sharply.  
“You’re not fired Amie.” He says turning to face you again.   
“I’m not?” You ask in disbelief.   
“No.” He takes a deep breath, “I thought you knew how I felt about you but the team just assumed you were with Reid so I never made a move. When you kissed me on the roof I was hoping that meant..” He trails off, and you shake your head.   
“Reid and I are friends. Like siblings. He and I have talked about it, neither of us feel any sort of romantic feelings toward the other.” You move closer to him around the table. “I’ve been much more interested in someone else for a long time.”  
“Really?” He asks softly, your face below his.   
“Really. I thought you profilers knew everything.” You tease gently. He cups your face in his hands and kisses you gently. It’s a slow, lazy kind of kiss, the kind that tells you there’s nothing he’d rather do than stand there with his lips moving against yours. In all honesty, there’s not much else you’d rather do either.


End file.
